Android 4.3 May Be Wrecking Nexus 4 Phones

Android 4.3 has probably been the most talked about incremental update released by Google for some time. For first-generation Nexus 7 owners, it's supposedly breathing new life back into the tablet thanks to a new garbage collection feature that speeds up the storage I/O process. However for many Nexus 4 owners, the new update has been more of a nightmare.

Customers are beginning to flood Google's Product Forums, most of which claim that after updating to Android 4.3, their Nexus 4 either gets stuck in a never ending "boot loop", their device freezes at the "X" splash screen, or the home button stops working after rebooting.

There are also reports that the update is now causing an overheating issue, touch has stopped working altogether, and the device itself running extremely slow. Unlocking the phone has its own set of issues, and many users claim that apps and photos have even disappeared.

"I updated it today morning and my gallery is all messed up," reports one Nexus 4 owner. "Thumbnails of deleted pics are still shown in the Gallery, and when you click on the thumbnail the later pictures come up. So if u try to delete the thumbnails the new pictures are getting deleted."

What a mess. Currently the only fix for these instances is to somehow flash the device to an older version of Android, or reset it to the factory default settings.

There also seems to be a problem with Netflix, Android 4.3 and the Nexus 4. Users claim that after the update, launching the Netflix app will cause some handsets to freeze up (aka Sleep of Death), thus forcing owners to reset the device after long-pressing the power button. Android engineer Dan Morrill has confirmed the Netflix issue and said that a fix is in the works.

Given the rising number of complaints over the last several days, Nexus 4 owners may want to hold off in upgrading to Android 4.3 for now. Google pumped out 4.2.1 "Jelly Bean" rather quick after v4.2 caused such a fuss, thus Nexus 4 owners may see a fix just as quick very soon (if it comes down to that).